is a
Parliamentary Constituency in the
House Of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the
Northern Ireland Assembly .
The seat was created in boundary changes in
1983 , as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from parts of
South Antrim and
North Down . In further revisions in
1995 it lost some areas to both
Belfast West and
Strangford . Currently the constituency contains most of
Lisburn district and part of
Banbridge district.
At the time of writing the
Boundary Commission has published provisional recommendations for modifying the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. It is proposed to transfer one part of Lagan Valley to
Belfast West and one part of
Upper Bann to Lagan Valley. The changes will be subject to a series of consultations and it remains to be seen whether these proposals will be upheld.
For the history of the equivalent constituencies prior to
1950 please see
Antrim (UK Parliament Constituency) and
Down (UK Parliament Constituency) and from
1950 until
1983 , please see
South Antrim (UK Parliament Constituency) and
North Down (UK Parliament Constituency) .
The constituency is overwhelmingly
Unionist and has traditionally had one of the highest votes for the
Ulster Unionist Party in all of Northern Ireland, due in part to the personal popularity of
James Molyneaux . Since his retirement in
1997 the seat has been represented by
Jeffrey Donaldson who many initially saw as the rising star of the UUP. However Donaldson had a fractious relationship with the party which at times has been reflected in the election results. In the
1998 Assembly Election he was controversially and publicly blocked from standing. In that election the UUP lost votes to many fringe unionist parties. In the
2001 General Election the votes for the UUP,
Democratic Unionist Party and
Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland all remained remarkably steady compared to significant shifts elsewhere in the province. Then in the
2003 Assembly Election Donaldson was allowed to stand, despite at this point having resigned the UUP whip at Westminster. The UUP had their best result in the election, in part due to no candidate from either the
UK Unionist Party or
Northern Ireland Unionist Party defending one of the seats won in
1998 . Donaldson's fractious relations with the UUP continued and the following month he, together with fellow assembly member
Norah Beare , left the party and joined the
Democratic Unionist Party . In the
2005 General Election he held his seat for his new party.
The
Member Of Parliament since
1997 is
Jeffrey Donaldson who was elected as a member of the
Ulster Unionist Party but switched to the
Democratic Unionist Party in
2004 . He succeeded
James Molyneaux who had represented the seat for the UUP since the
1983 General Election and previously sat for the old
South Antrim Constituency which covered much of the same area.
| |
Ulster Unionist Party
|
| |
Basil McCrea
|
| |
9,172
|
| |
215
|
| |
-350
|
|
| |
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
|
| |
Seamus Close
|
| |
4,316
|
| |
101
|
| |
-65
|
|
| |
Sinn Féin
|
| |
Paul Butler
|
| |
3,197
|
| |
75
|
| |
+16
|
|
| |
Social Democratic and Labour Party
|
| |
Patricia Lewsley
|
| |
2,598
|
| |
61
|
| |
-14
|
|
| |
Democratic Unionist Party
|
| |
Ulster Unionist Party
|
| |
+381
|
|
| |
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
|
| |
Seamus Close
|
| |
7,624
|
| |
166
|
| |
-06
|
|
| |
Democratic Unionist Party
|
| |
Edwin Poots
|
| |
6,164
|
| |
134
|
| |
-01
|
|
| |
Social Democratic and Labour Party
|
| |
Patricia Lewsley
|
| |
3,462
|
| |
75
|
| |
-02
|
|
| |
Sinn Féin
|
| |
Paul Butler
|
| |
2,725
|
| |
59
|
| |
+34
|
|
The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the
2003 Election are:
2003 - present
In the
1998 Election the six MLAs elected were:
1998 -
2003
In the
1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from Lagan Valley. They were as follows:
